The Milky Way and the Way of Jesus

 The Milky Way and the Way of Jesus

After my mom remarried we moved to Toronto where my stepfather worked for Canada’s version of Nabisco; namely, the Weston Biscuit Company. There I spent my high school and college years. 

My buddy Dave Appleby and I used to love going to the family cottage in the Haliburton Highlands about 150 miles north of Toronto. We drove up in his dad’s 1953 Pontiac Star Chief. What a car! I remember the windshield wipers which operated on a vacuum pump so that when driving uphill and the engine labored, the windshield wipers would stop. This was inconvenient when it was raining which it always was when using them! It was an adventure driving up to the North Country. 

I loved the out of doors in those days. We went canoeing at night and studied the heavens. It was unlike anything you could see in the city. There in the dark, dark skies nothing would impede or interfere with that amazing sight. It was as if God had spilled an enormous salt shaker across the canopy of heaven. For the first time in my life I was able to see the Milky Way. It was an enormous pinwheel in the sky and spun about in all its glory. For me at least, it declared the Glory of God. 

As the Psalmist says;

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, * 

and the firmament shows his handiwork. 

2 One day tells its tale to another, * 

and one night imparts knowledge to another. 

3 Although they have no words or language, * 

and their voices are not heard, 

4 Their sound has gone out into all lands, * 

and their message to the ends of the world.

Or in today’s Psalm

3 Praise him, sun and moon; *
       praise him, all you shining stars.

As I leaned back in that canoe, there was absolute silence. But I could hear God’s voice with crystal clarity. It spoke to my heart of the mysterious dimension of Creation and the unfathomable depths of its riches.

I loved reading “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking. Science fascinates me. How does this magnificent universe work? I cannot say that I fully understand all that there is to understand about The Big Bang, Black Holes, The General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, but that doesn’t stop me from gazing into the minds of Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein or explore the thinking of other great physicists. Mind you, I flunked grade 12 algebra so how in heaven’s name do you think I can manage this subject material? Still I study it. 

News of the first image of the Black Hole at the center of our Galaxy hit the streets this week. Dennis Overbye’s article in Thursday’s issue of the NY Times is well worth reading. He explains that at the center of our Galaxy there are forces so strong that the whole of our vastness spins around it. As Carl Sagan would say “billions and billions” of stars and all their planetary systems spin around the center of that dense force so powerful that light itself cannot escape it. To my way of thinking, it is very simple. The vast pinwheel around the center of our Galaxy is like the vortex at the center of a full sink of water draining into nothing but and empty swirl of low pressure. That’s probably over simplified!

What does all this have to do with the Gospel? What is the most powerful force at the center of our lives? Who is at the center of our lives around which everything else revolves like a vast pinwheel? Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life for me but the Way of Jesus! In the same way that the heavens declare the glory of God in that long ago Canadian sky to this then teenager and his buddy David, so too “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.”

It all boils down to one very simple declaration. For as Jesus proclaims in today’s Gospel; “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

There are no exceptions to that rule. “The apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God.” That was a problem for some of our ancestors in faith. The word “Gentile” literally means “outsider”. In Jesus, God has declared that there are no “outsiders”. There are no more “Gentiles”. We are all one in Christ! When Peter sat down to eat with these “outsiders”, the “insiders” criticized him. This whole business of “circumcised” and “uncircumcised” is all about who’s in and who’s out. And God help us, the church still plays all kinds of “inclusion/exclusion games.” All the complexities of dietary laws factor into the conversation at that point, and when Peter declared; ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ A vision from God’s had begun to declare a new heaven and a new earth to him and it was centered on the love of God.

Which brings us back again to the Way of Jesus, the Way of Love. It is the only Way, the only Truth and the only Life. Without Love we become a black hole and the truth and the life are not in us. 

But when we love God, when we love one another, and when we love ourselves as God commands us to do, then we begin to see a New Heaven and a New Earth! Much like a star lit heaven in the Canadian North Country; “I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Such is the Glory of the Milky Way to my eyes!

God knows we’ve seen a lot in these past few years with the loss of over 1 million Americans to COVID and millions more around the world. And now untold destruction of a whole civilization in the Ukraine. Human suffering is indeed a Black Hole out of which no light can escape. 

Unless we put Jesus at the center of our Universe. It is a fascinating paradox that at the same time that a Black Hole is the darkest thing in the Universe from which no light can escape,  its magnetic power is such that it releases a light that is brighter than any other force in nature. Wrap your head around that if you can!

Which brings me back to Jesus as the Way and the Truth and the Life. There at the center of my universe there is a force around with everything in my life is organized. 

Love God.

Love one another. 

Love yourself.

Now when I gaze into the heavens I see what John the Divine saw in the center of the human heart; “God will dwell with us and we will be his peoples; God will wipe every tear from our eyes. And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.”

There, I’ve come a long way from those wonderful rides to the North Country in David’s fantastic 1953 Pontiac Sky Chief!

In the Name of God; the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.

Fr Paul.

Below are the readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter with thoughts and phrases highlighted that speak to my heart and soul. 

Fifth Sunday of Easter

The Collect:

Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Lesson: Acts 11:1-18

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

Psalm 148

1 Hallelujah!
   Praise the Lord from the heavens; *
       praise him in the heights.
2 Praise him, all you angels of his; *
       praise him, all his host.
3 Praise him, sun and moon; *
       praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, heaven of heavens, *
       and you waters above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the Name of the Lord; *
       for he commanded, and they were created.
6 He made them stand fast for ever and ever; *
       he gave them a law which shall not pass away.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth, *
       you sea-monsters and all deeps;
8 Fire and hail, snow and fog, *
       tempestuous wind, doing his will;
9 Mountains and all hills, *
       fruit trees and all cedars;
10 Wild beasts and all cattle, *
       creeping things and winged birds;
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, *
       princes and all rulers of the world;
12 Young men and maidens, *
       old and young together.
13 Let them praise the Name of the Lord, *
       for his Name only is exalted,
       his splendor is over earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up strength for his people
   and praise for all his loyal servants, *
       the children of Israel, a people who are near him.
       Hallelujah!

Second Lesson: Revelation 21:1-6

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Gospel: John 13:31-35

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”